The Blue Heron Event Center Reviews

Debbie Powers and her team were excellent and very easy to work with. The value proposition, level of service and quality of the food and beverages were beyond our expectations. Debbie was very flexible and accommodated all of our requests. We highly recommend the Blue Herron to anyone looking for a wedding venue. Thank you, Sal and Lisa Caroniti (Parents of the Bride)

Francesca and Bethany are absolutely incredible. I could not have asked for more responsive, helpful and caring coordinators. They are so professional and always on top of everything regarding your wedding. They worked directly with all my vendors and I didn't have to think about a thing! Everything was set up and torn down perfectly and went smoothly. Also, the food at Blue Heron is absolutely spectacular. The lamb pops, bruschetta, and ahi tuna were my favorite appetizers. The bar did a fantastic job as well - I have never seen more tips given at a wedding than at the Blue Heron. They made the day go so well and had answers to every single thing I needed. Everything was so beautiful and perfect!

My husband and I got married this past weekend at Blue Heron. We had our reception in the Heron Room. Bethany and Francesca responded quickly to our emails and easily accommodated our requests. The wait staff was friendly and they set up everything according to our pictures. They made our vision come to life! We received so many compliments on how stunning everything was! Highly recommend their venue! The food was also fantastic!

As soon as we looked at Blue Heron Event Center last year we knew that was the one for our wedding day. The site of the outdoor ceremony was beautiful, the grand ballroom was so pretty and we loved all of the space for our event - including the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception. From the time we booked the date, Francesca and Bethany were so helpful in answering all of our questions and helping us plan the wedding of our dreams.
We are so happy we were married at Blue Heron - everything was amazing. The rehearsal was great, the food was excellent, the ceremony was so beautiful and the whole day was exactly how we pictured it. It was so nice to have a coordinator on site as well for the rehearsal and day of so we could enjoy the wedding and each other.
Thank you Francesca and Bethany and the entire team at Blue Heron - you all really were our something blue and made our wedding day so special!
Elliott & Andrea Alloway, married August 11, 2023

BLUE HERON IS THE BEST!! My husband and I had been working with Blue Heron since August 2019 when we originally booked our Sep 4, 2021 wedding. Since that time, we decided to push back our wedding to Sep 2022 due to COVID and Blue Heron could not have been more accommodating and flexible with this change. Everyone we worked with from our start with them in 2019 to our finish in 2022 were knowledgable, friendly, accessible, helpful, and professional. Special shoutouts to their event coordinators Bethany and Francesca! Blue Heron is a well oiled machine that knows what they are doing when it comes to running and coordinating a wedding. Everything went so smoothly and my husband and I did not have a worry in the world when it came to the day of. Not to mention, their ceremony site is especially beautiful outside by the pond and pergola and their reception space in the grand ballroom is perfect for a large wedding! Finally, their food is INCREDIBLE! The amount of compliments we got on the food from our guests - the limit does not exist! People LOVED IT! (Shout out the short ribs and risotto). Some special things we loved were they offered their own beers on draft during the reception, everything is included such as tables/chairs/linens when booking with them, their staff sets up and tears down making for a stress free start and end to the wedding and reception, and their location is beautiful and perfect for wedding photos!! Cannot recommend enough we love you Blue Heron!!!!

If you’re looking for a beautiful venue, with amazing food, spectacular scenes for photos and hands down THE BEST staff, you need to stop looking and book The Blue Heron. Our experience from start to finish was nothing short of amazing. Their team worked with us through not one, but two Covid postponements and never once added to the mountain of anxiety and uncertainty we were facing.They helped us plan our small intimate wedding ceremony on July 11, 2020 (our original wedding date) as well as our big wedding day event on December 11, 2021. Both days turned out beautifully. For our December wedding date, we dropped off our decor on Friday morning and the team transformed the bits and pieces we gave them into a beautiful and thoughtfully planned out reception. Never in a million years could we have made their space look the way they did. Each member of the staff that had a hand in our wedding day was professional, understanding and accommodating. Every question, email, request or worry I may have had throughout our wedding planning process was quickly and mindfully managed by Khadar, Britney and Bethany with ease. We experienced a lot of ups and downs during our planning process due to Covid, but never once did we question our decision to hold our reception at the Blue Heron. We were willing to wait over 3 years (including postponements from the pandemic) to have our wedding at our dream venue and we don’t regret that decision at all. Thank you really isn’t a big enough way to express our appreciation for the team at The Blue Heron and how amazing they were to work with. 10/10 recommendation for any event you might be hosting.

We had our wedding at Blue Heron this past June 2021. They were an absolute delight to work this and even made moving our wedding from August 2020 (due to Covid-19) so easy. We were able to keep our original plan so to speak, just move it all to a different day. They made our actual day so smooth and set up everything for us so beautifully. We had multiple compliments of the food as well! I highly recommend this venue to anyone for any event they may have!

We had the privilege of celebrating my daughter’s wedding at Blue Heron last Saturday and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. The venue itself is beautifully elegant and the service was exceptional. The room was decorated beautifully, and the timing with the pictures, food, etc. was flawless. From a personal note, I can't tell you what a relief it was not to have to worry about either putting the decorations up or taking them down, and the pick up the next day was as smooth as it could possibly be as well. I had two separate parties tell me it was one of the most beautiful weddings they had ever seen, and I think that's probably the highest compliment possible. The team there made my daughter’s big day truly special.

Our daughter had her wedding at the Blue Heron on August 1st 2020 despite Covid 19 and we couldn't thank Jen and Khadar enough for the AMAZING job they did in the pre-planning, and actual quick set up on the wedding day to make their dreams come true outside despite a rainy day! You two must have some magical powers to make the clouds part in time for the ceremony! The setting was beautiful, everything well organized, and the food was so delicious! We are still receiving compliments from our guests! This is an amazing venue!!!

Jen made our wedding day amazing. They were so accommodating! We cannot thank them enough for everything. Plus the venue is beautiful!

We had our wedding at the Blue Heron Event Center on 08/09/2020 and everything about it was perfect! Despite being in the mist of a pandemic, we were able to celebrate it just the way we imagined it to be. The Blue Heron Event Center was the only place we looked at and considered for our wedding because it’s absolutely stunning. Jen worked with us from the start to the finish. She made sure every detail of the wedding was figured out and got in contact with our other vendors. The food was AMAZING and the staff was super friendly! We couldn’t have asked for a better day! We would recommend this venue to everyone because Jen made it so easy for us!

Blue Heron is without a doubt the best! They have been incredible. Keep in mind they are so amazing that they get booked up fast!! Jen was with us every step of the way. Between showing us the venue, booking our date, tasting the food, and planning the vision. Unfortunately, due to the current pandemic we were forced to postpone. Khadar, a manager at the Blue Heron swooped in to help and continue to make our day special. He provided us with available dates and proceeded to change our date free of charge. I couldn’t be more thankful for the Blue Heron and their excellent service! Additionally, I have to say their chef is hands down the best!!! For our tasting we were able to sample several different dishes, all amazing by the way and not at all like the “typical wedding food” people have become accustomed to. My mom has always told me that you get what you pay for, that couldn’t be more true with the Blue Heron!

Blue heron provided the setting for our rehearsal, rehearsal dinner afterwards at the brewery , and our daughters wedding Aug 3, 2019. Food was great. Setting was beautiful- all our guests were very happy!

I am the bride and I worked predominantly with Jen. At first, they kept changing the contact but ultimately I felt very relaxed on the big day. Jen made sure everyone was taken care of, and even stepped in to help some of the handicapped guests get their food. Even the servers were exceptional and attentive, making sure my husband and I were fed and never with an empty drink. The day after I heard nothing but amazing things from the guests and could not have been happier about the experience the guests had at the venue. 10 out of 10 for this venue!

Everyone we worked with was very helpful and professional. They always seemed to have our best interests at heart and helped us make decisions to make our wedding day exactly what we envisioned. The venue was beautiful and the food was delicious! We received many compliments both during and after our wedding day.

I recently held my daughter's bridal shower in the newly renovated Heron Room. The venue was absolutely beautiful - it looked and felt brand new and didn't need any additional decor as the space is stunning! The brunch was delicious and the presentation was spectacular! There were approximately 90 guests that were all served custom, made to order omelettes in less than 30 minutes. We received numerous compliments from our guests and we could not have done it without K. He went above and beyond to make sure that this day was perfect for us. He ensured every important detail we discussed was delivered and was always just a text away! The staff was also very accommodating and checked with us periodically to confirm everything was going as planned. I will definitely recommend this venue to anyone looking for an amazing space and delicious food and hope to work with K and the Blue Heron in years to come!

Our daughter’s wedding reception was one week ago at Blue Heron Brewery and Event Center and we couldn’t be more pleased! The event space was transformed beautifully with perfect lighting and was just breathtaking. K, Tanner, Chef Ben and the rest of the team were nothing less than amazing. K’s communication and quick responses during the planning process was incredible and we knew we were in good hands. Tanner ran the reception professionally and graciously, accommodating our every need. And Chef Ben - our guests raved about the hot, delicious, “non-wedding” food that all came out at the same time! I can’t tell you how many people are still talking about it. Not only are they talking about the food but also about the service of the staff and their kindness. As a mother, I couldn’t have asked for a better team to work with to make my daughter’s dream a reality. Thank you all!

Mary Jane and her staff were amazing from the start of planning until the end of our wedding night. The food was beyond EXCELLENT!! The staff made sure we had everything we needed during the reception. I honestly recommend the Blue Heron. Omg not to mention the outside ceremony space and the cocktail hour. Wow I'm still impressed.

I held an event at the Blue Heron September 29th. From start to finish this was a wonderful experience and a class act!. Mary Jane was my coordinator, (Planner). She was so very helpful. Mary Jane is very detailed oriented and very creative. She listened to what I wanted and helped with even more options and ideas. She was a delight to work with. The evening of the event, she was present for the set up, made sure it was perfect, and added some creative touches. The food was phenomenal, and the display of the food was amazing. Staff working the event were prompt and courteous. If I voiced any concerns or needs, they immediately took action. Thank you for making my event memorable
and beautiful!

I worked with Chris Winter on my wedding at the Blue Heron. I cant imagine what my wedding would have been like without Chris and the rest of the Taste team. Food and service was impeccable. The venue was gorgeous and a great location. I will continue to use Taste of Excellence for all future events!

Kaitlyn from A Taste of Excellence was amazing to work with. She helped us find our dream venue, we loved The Blue Heron! Not many places have a ceremony site outside, this was our dream. The food was excellent , we are still getting compliments from our guest. I highly recommend A Taste of Excellence and The Blue Heron to anyone, I couldn't be happier with everything!

Stephanie at a Taste of excellence was the best. She was extremely detailed and professional! She offered us amazing ideas for our menu ( which was a trio entree), table arrangements, linens, and chiavari chairs. The services she provided made our day amazing! The food was beyond excellent, we still have guests complementing us on how great our wedding dinner was. The food displays were beautiful. The staff was very attentive and professional. Thank you Stephanie!
We will recommend a taste of excellence to anyone interested in catering. With that being said Taste of excellence also catered our bridal shower and rehearsal dinner.

This venue had it all! They have a beautiful ceremony site, large reception hall, amazing choices for food with different options of presentation and they have an amazing day of coordinator, Britney!

Very friendly and flexible with the budget. Beautiful venue.

Even with a GM change a couple months before our wedding, Brittney and crew made our day BEYOND perfect. I (the groom) am a bit of a bride-zilla control freak and she kept her cool and made everything so smooth. There was a small hiccup with the hors d'oeuvres but she was right on top of it and corrected it without the guests even noticing. I cannot recommend them enough. Seriously incredible. Oh, and the food was AAMMAAZZIINNGG!!

This venue is very beautiful and the value is great. I would recommend looking at this venue for your wedding. The venue does not have bridal rooms to get ready.

Venue: The Blue Heron Event Center is beautiful! The outdoor ceremony area is an amphitheater leading down to a pond with a fountain. This set-up is very pretty and allows all the guests to easily see the ceremony. The reception area is a large room with windows that leads to an outdoor patio looking towards a wooded park. After the ceremony, we went with our wedding party and our photographer to take some photos in nature. Next door is a brewery for guests to go to after the party as well. One note though - the brewery closes at midnight.

Pre-wedding communication: When we reserved the location the contact was very quick to reply to questions and provide information. However, the contact switched to someone else, who was not as responsive to emails and was unorganized when it came to setting up the taste-testing, providing information, updated contracts, and requesting information in a timely manner. We were very annoyed and disappointed, and it did not give us confidence in the week leading up to the wedding.

Day of wedding: When the wedding day arrived, the Blue Heron was perfect! All the event coordinators and staff were very organized, set up the ceremony area, all the reception tables, centerpieces, and even party favors, and showed the vendors where to go. The staff was extremely friendly and professional. Also, food was delicious! The Blue Heron allowed us to serve ribeye and calamari (our favorites), which were not on the menu. The crème brulee and ice cream bar were great too! Jen was very accommodating and was constantly hovering around, making sure that all of our needs were taken care of.

All in all - a beautiful venue with great caterers.

This past year, 3 of my children got married so I know a bit about weddings and receptions. First I will tell you that the area that they have set aside for the wedding and the reception are beautiful. Incredible scenery, and a classic reception hall. We had over 200 people in attendance, everyone appreciated the event and praised the food.

Where things went wrong was in the execution of the day. First, we didn't know which coordinator would be there until the day before. A lot of what we told one coordinator wasn't carried over to the others. We spent a good deal of time planning things out, only to have to repeat things. On the day of the wedding, the staff was ill prepared for all the details of our wedding, to the point where I had to remind them to set out the bottles of water we had prepared and the programs to be passed out, after people were seating. I personally had to hand deliver water to guests already seated. At the reception, the candles at the tables weren't lit until we hunted down the manager to get them ignited.

I could go on about many other issues that the mother and father of the bride shouldn't have had to worry about but did because of the poor execution here, but let me just leave you with one other incident. While I mentioned that the food was good, the food service was terrible. The wait staff were high school and college students and they fumbled things badly. Again , this was our 3rd wedding and the only one where there were so many dinners delivered to the wrong people. At my table alone nearly half of the people got the wrong dinner. My son, got the wrong meal 3 times and finally decided to eat what he got. When you are spending the amount of money that is required for a place like this, you expect quality and professionalism. We did not get the later.

To be fair, my guests didn't notice anything wrong, but we did. It was constant worries as the execution was fumbled time and again. So If you like the vibe you see, certainly consider booking, but pay a little extra to hire an outside event coordinator to make sure the execution is handled and if not, to fix it for you.

So to be clear, this venue is beautiful, the communication was average, but the follow through was poor. Although this venue likes to setup/decorate everything 2 hours before the ceremony, I was told I could do my own decorating the day before the wedding since the venue wasn't booked (Friday wedding). When I showed up to decorate and drop off the cake, no one was there and nothing was set up like I was told it would be. Since the wedding coordinator wasn't there, none of the other personnel had any idea what I was there for. There was definitely a lack of communication. We were promised, on the day of the wedding, that we would have golf carts to utilize for taking pictures on the grounds. Those golf carts weren't even out and ready for us to use. They were parked outside after we got back from our 2 hour photo session. Another issue we had was with the security. We understood that it was a Medina Twp. rule to have a police presence because of the alcohol served. What we didn't understand was paying $200 to a police officer that showed up 30 minutes before the event ended. Also I guess we should have taken our extra food that night since we were told there was a large amount left. When my parents showed up to pick up the decorations and extra food, there was hardly any left. I don't think that I would recommend this venue to friends. There were just too many hiccups that could have easily been avoided with more communication and professionalism.

The problems really began when we went for our tasting for our food selections. That's when I first thought that there was something suspicious about the event planner, who was new to us, Khadar. Initially, we had Mary Jane who we were told was no longer in her previous position, this was not a change we were made aware of until it was too late. In our first meeting after the position change, Khadar made a statement along the lines of " you can just rip the contract up that you guys made with Mary Jane, because I'll give you a whole new one." Anyone who has ever been involved in a contract, knows that when you SIGN a contract it's a legal binding document that must be entirely fulfilled or there is repercussions. Then at our second encounter, I became even more uneasy with this event coordinator. Khadar presented to us that "he could envision our ceremony on top of the patio, and he'd throw in the chairs because he liked us so much" At that time I stated I was sold on, and contracted, for our ceremony to be held at the natural amphitheater and pond and I did not have any want to change locations from what we signed and agreed to in our contract. It seemed to me as though something was off when he pushed for us to change locations like that. Fast forward to three weeks prior to our wedding, I emailed and called Khadar multiple times with no response. Finally my significant other emailed Khadar stating " You need to get in touch with us because we have questions." khadar immediately responded to him, stating "please call me" we called him on speakerphone and Khadar exact words were "guys we JUST discovered a problem, it appears as though we double booked your ceremony site". I immediately said to Khadar, "I'm going to stop you right there, because you asked us when we paid our 60 day payment to move sites and I had indicated then that we were not moving". After fumbling on his words he asked if there was any way we could think about moving the time of our ceremony, after our guest had already been sent invitations with a set time. After I calmed down and was able to logically think, we agreed AT THE COST OF THE BLUE HERON we would move our time from 4:30pm to 3pm and they would pay our other contracted vendors the difference. It had became a pissing match on who had more people and who they could manipulate into moving at that point. Therefore based off the Blue Herons inability to properly plan for multiple weddings on the same site, Khadar quickly agreed, also throwing in that they would provide "comps including free apps, and the balance of the venue paid in full, ect." The day of our wedding Khadar, who was supposed to be streamlining the times in which eveything was supposed to happen, was seen for a total of ten maybe fifteen minutes. We were an entire 10 seats short in our reception hall, causing our family to end up standing in the corner. The servers were very inefficient in their timing and even very unprofessional in the aspect that they were doing odd things like picking up the drinks off the tables when people got up to dance or use the restroom. The desserts were not served until 8:00/ 8:30pm, when our dinner was at 5:30pm, by that point everyone was dancing and mingling, so they had no urge to eat dessert. Then to top off our night, the accommodations that were to be paid out by the Blue Heron, to the DJ service, for adding time and breaking our contract, was denied, despite emails direct from Khadar to the DJ, indicating that the balance would be paid with a check to the company the day of the reception. As well as the request we received prior to us departing our reception, to pay a Montville PD officer that was providing "security" even though this $200.00 cost was never outline in our contract. In short, for what we paid for this venue, and the promises that were made, that we wouldn't need to be concerned with anything on the day of our wedding, we were very disappointed. We would not refer any of our friends or family to be wrapped up in the debacle we were caught in with the Blue Heron

If I could give them zero stars I would. Khadar has been the most unprofessional vendor I have ever met and worked with. His lack of communication is comical. He constantly lied to us from the beginning was not transparent with pricing, or really anything. He literally wrote up five floor plans after asking him to correct it, and he could still not give us what we asked for. I am blown away by how he treats the people that pay him. Brides, seriously look into anywhere else. I cancelled my dream wedding because he has been that terrible to work with. I want to add that when I originally signed my contract, Mary Jane was their coordinator at the time and not Khadar. We would have never of signed a contract there if we had known he was taking over everything. Very disappointing. He will reply to this saying we could’ve had our wedding despite risking others lives during covid so they could make some money, but I got extremely sick and was hospitalized a good portion of my wedding year with cancer, and he still did not care at all and said I’d be able to have my wedding. A very ableist and ignorant statement from someone that should be working for you, not against you. I really hope the $2,000 they kept for doing nothing is going to good use!!! If you want to avoid an absolute nightmare during wedding planning, then steer clear of this place as long as Khadar is in charge.

My fiancé and I have had an appointment scheduled to view and tour the facility for weeks. We clearly stated the date of our wedding when setting the appointment. The venue confirmed our appointment was scheduled at that time. Over the past week, they sent me a request to verify our appointment through text and email and I confirmed the appointment via both platforms. I continued to receive appointment reminders through text for our 9am appointment. At 8:37 I received a text that Blue Heron had cancelled our appointment. We figured it had to be a mistake because who cancels a meeting 20 minutes before an appointment? We arrived 10 minutes before our scheduled appointment time and there was another event going on at the venue. We spoke with Jen after someone who was attending the current event went to ask the caterers if there was someone who could talk to us and we were told the manager was supposed to call us to reschedule yesterday (but didn’t and we were still receiving appointment reminders). Upon talking to Jen, she asked if we had any questions, allowed me to ask the questions, and finally asked when our wedding date was scheduled and if the date was flexible. When I told her, she then said the venue was unavailable. I can’t believe how unprofessional this whole experience was and would highly recommend you find a different venue for your important events.